White House Salaries: Who’s Making the Top Paychecks?

The White House has submitted its annual report to Congress listing the title and salary of every White House office employee.

Twenty-nine-year-old speechwriter Jon Favreau, for example, rakes in the top salary, $172,000, just as much as Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, senior advisors David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett and press secretary Robert Gibbs. New social secretary Julianna Smoot makes $150,000 – more than her predecessor, Desiree Rogers, whose salary last year was $113,000.

The president, by comparison, makes $400,000 a year.

Shortly after taking office, President Obama ordered a pay freeze on senior White House staffers who made $100,000 a year or more — an order officially called the Presidential Memorandum Regarding Pay Freeze. Within his State of the Union address this year, President Obama extended the freeze on the pay for top government officials and added political appointees.